What To Expect From ‘Pokémon Legends Arceus’

The Pokémon Company has been testing the waters on several new ventures outside of their traditional creature-catching turn-based RPGs recently. Last week’s Pokémon showcase presentation featured Pokemon Legends Arceus, an open-world action role-playing game in the Pokémon universe coming in 2022.

Since the Pokemon Company announced Arceus, fans have dove into the short reveal trailer, hoping to glean every bit of information possible about the upcoming game. What fans have found already is extremely promising.

Players will be returning to the familiar Sinnoh region from Pokémon Diamond & Pearl for Arceus with the goal of completing the first Pokédex in the region’s history. Players will be delving into the distant past on this Pokemon adventure. This is the first time trainers get to explore any time other than the modern age in quite some time. All of the Pokémon series’ mainline games take place in modern times, but Arceus will clearly be an ancient adventure into Pokémon’s roots.

Arceus‘s website explains that the game’s setting isn’t just ancient, “this story unfolds in a long-gone era, before ideas such as being a Pokémon Trainer or having a Pokémon League even existed.” Key art also shows that the series’ iconic Pokéball now has a padlock-like seal, unlike it’s traditional sleek look.

Players also don’t have to worry about random-battle encounters because Arceus’s battle system works completely seamless with exploration. Similar to Pokémon Sword & Shield, players can find Pokémon walking around the world. Instead of entering a turn-based battle after approaching Pokémon, players can seemingly either hang back and document their behavior for a Pokédex listing, or engage with no transition or loading screen. Pokémon themselves behave the same as usual; they have four moves and faint when they run out of health points.

Arceus‘s vast, sweeping fields looks impressively similar to 2017’s Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. The two games bear a striking resemblance, but I doubt trainers can brandish a sword or bow in the upcoming adventure.